At The End of the Year

Upcoming Story Group Opportunities:

  • In person Story Group restarts January 12th (3 spots left)

  • Online Story Membership Program restarts January 19th (1 spot left)

These stanzas from John O’Donahue’s poem “At The End of the Year” are guiding my reflections of the past months and turning me towards the future. You can read the full poem here.

As this year draws to its end,

We give thanks for the gifts it brought

And how they became inlaid within

Where neither time nor tide can touch them.

Surprises that came awake

In forgotten corners of old fields

Where expectations seemed to have quenched.

The slow, brooding times

When all that was awkward

And the wave in the mind

Pierced every sore with salt.

The darkened days that stopped

The confidence of the dawn.

Days when beloved faces shone brighter

With light from beyond themselves;

And from the granite of some secret sorrow

A stream of buried tears loosened.

We bless this year for all we learned,

For all we have loved and lost

And for the quiet way it brought us

Nearer to our invisible destination.